Mistakes
by Borrowed Twenties
Summary: No one can escape making mistakes, but they are two kinds of mistakes - the big ones, and the small ones. And these seven teenagers all has their fair share of both. A series of short one-shots.
1. Mistakes

This is a random idea I thought of when I was in the bus, and it sparked off this fic. It's going to be a random story, yeah. You're going to see what I mean. Anyway, it's just a fic that shows the big and small mistakes anyone in the team could make - which in this fic, they do. Okay, I'm not making much sense, but I'm sure you'd get what I mean as the series of one-shots go by.(:

Disclaimer: I wish I can own Class of the Titans, but I don't. And I want a 3rd season!

**Mistakes**

Nobody's perfect, and everybody makes mistakes.

Even the people in the team.

Jay, Theresa, Archie, Atlanta, Odie, Herry and Neil. All of them _do_ make mistakes.

There are two different types of mistakes. They can be small, and they can be big. And obviously, everyone has their fair share of both.

And here they are...


	2. Scene 1

**Scene 1**

Archie settled down in the seat next to Atlanta comfortably, glad to have found one. The bus was extremely crowded and packed like sardines. Thankfully, he wasn't claustrophobic like Odie was, if not he would have been pretty freaked by the total non-breathing space that he had just entered.

Just as he was about to speak to Atlanta, he suddenly caught sight of a pregnant woman struggling through the packed crowd and over to his side. Reluctant to give up his seat, he knew he should, since it was the right thing to do. Getting to his feet despite Atlanta's questioning look, he gestured to the seat. The pregnant woman looked surprised, but she smiled and made her way over to the seat nevertheless.

Sitting herself soundly onto the seat, she looked up at Archie and asked curiously, "Why did you give up your seat for me?"

Archie shrugged a little sheepishly. Thoughts of praises filled him. _Modesty_, he reminded himself. _Remember to be modest_. "Well, you're pregnant and all, so I thought -"

"What?!" the woman suddenly shrieked, face turning purple, her kindly look gone in a flash. "I'm not pregnant!"

Archie frowned disbelievingly for a moment, at the same time looking down at her supposedly round belly. "Gee, then you're pretty fat for a middle-aged lady..." _Oops. Wrong thing to say._

Atlanta continued staring, holding back her laughter at Archie's klutziness as the woman stood up, raging with anger, and scolded him upside down.

_Maybe he wasn't such a hero after all._


	3. Scene 2

**Scene 2**

The sky was overcast with dark, ominous clouds and heavy rain poured down, drenching the seven heroes that stood, angered by the fact that Cronus had once again conjured up one of his portals and escaped yet again. Yet one of them was angry not only by that fact, but with someone else else well.

Sweeping his wet bangs off his face, Jay felt anger rising up from the pit of his stomach. Losing all his logic at the moment, he took one step towards the downcast orange-haired girl.

_"How could you let him get away?!"_

Everyone stared in silence, not daring to say much, or perhaps not knowing what to say to improve the current situation. Theresa looked up, sorrow in her eyes.

"I'm sorry, Jay. I didn't mean to. I tried, I really did. I pushed the button a second too late, and the trap didn't get him. But it's alright. We can always try this another time, right... Jay?"

She tried to manage a waning smile, but only shock registered in her emerald orbs when Jay spoke again, harsher words in his anger.

"No! It's not alright! Do you know how much effort I - and _we!_ - put in together to make this? To plan this? And now you've gone and ruined it all! How could you? We've gone over this many times already. Practised it, rehearsed it. You shouldn't have sprung the trap late! What was keeping you? Just to press a little button and then you already got it wrong!"

Theresa's vision blurred, tears stinging her eyes as she took one step back away from him. "My... wound..." she grounded out, gazing at the blood that stained the side of her shirt and the hurting wound on her arm, the deep gash by the likes of Cronus' scythe. But Jay didn't seem to hear her. The wound hurt, but not as much as her heart did. _Aching, in pain..._

_"I really can't believe how you even got to be on this team!"_

His last words tore her heart to shreds, the last straw that broke the camel's back. Rubbing away her tears, she ran off crying in anguish...

Jay stood, watching coldly as she escaped from him, crying.

It was quiet. Finally, Odie came up to him and put his hand on Jay's shoulder, a little afraid that his leader would snap off his head - both figuratively and literally. "It wasn't really her fault, Jay. She - she was wounded. Don't you think... You were pretty harsh on her?"

Jay's eyes widened and he bowed his head, realisation striking the chords of his heart. Suddenly, his heart felt heavy, heavy with shame, guilt and sorrow. "Oh my gosh... I can't believe I said that to her." _What have I done?_ he thought in regret.

Looking up to the fading figure of Theresa as she finally disappeared into the dark woods, he was at a loss for words. Numb, he didn't know what to do. Run after her? She would never forgive him again. Not after what he'd just said.

He was a monster.

_And it was too late to take back those words..._


	4. Scene 3

**Scene 3**

"Hey, where's everyone?" Neil wondered, looking around suspiciously as he toted the heavy bags of clothes he'd just bought. Entering the dark dorm, he flicked on the switch warily, looking around almost comically, then dropped his bags on the loveseat with a sigh. He pouted, then, putting a hand on his hand, said dramatically, "Everyone really did forget my birthday! How could they?"

Settling down the couch, he leaned back, feeling a little depressed that his _friends_ forgot that today was his birthday. "They really did forget... How _could_ they forget _my_ birthday, of all people?"

"We didn't!" voices suddenly chorused, making Neil jump out of his skin. Turning to face the far wall, he noticed all of them sprung from a room eagerly.

"Happy birthday, Neil!" Atlanta yelled, suddenly throwing party streamers all over Neil. Theresa followed suit, and Neil almost screamed as he was covered solely by party streamers.

"We bought a birthday present for you," Jay said, rushing back to the room where they had been hiding and pulling out a nicely-wrapped present. "Here."

Neil received it, then frowned. "Aren't there supposed to be _six_ presents?"

Herry groaned. "This one cost a bomb, and we all pitched in equally to buy it. You should be grateful."

"Yeah, it's branded," Archie stated, crossing his arms. "Take it or leave it."

"I'll take it," Neil replied, flashing them his award-winning smile, then opening the present. Surprised, he almost dropped it. "_Oh. My. Gosh_!"

They had given him that branded bottle of shampoo that he had been eying so long!

"Thanks! I love it! I love you guys!" Neil shrieked girlishly.

"But not as much as he loves himself," Odie whispered lightly to Archie, who sniggered in return.

"You know what, I should go try it now!" Neil immediately rushed to his bathroom despite the glares from the others and undressed.

Opening the bottle, he excitedly poured the shampoo onto his palm, lathered, and then rinsed. Sniffing the air, he smiled contentedly. His hair smelled good! Not that it didn't usually.

Stepping out of the shower in record time just because he wanted to show off his hair, he suddenly felt... itchy. Dismissing it at first, the itch grew. Suddenly, he realised something and his eyes widened. Picking up the bottle, he could have hit his perfect head for not checking the ingredients first. His good friends hadn't bought him the rose flavour he had been eying, they had bought him... _Lavender_!

Screaming and wrapping himself in a towel, he charged downstairs after seeing his reflection in the mirror.

"Why did you buy me lavender! I am _allergic_ to it!" he wailed.

The team exchanged glances. "We're sorry, we forgot," Jay started. However, Archie finished, "But you should have checked for yourself."

Neil closed his eyes, beside himself in grief at his rash-filled face.

_Well, at least he wasn't the only one who made the mistake._

--

I'm alternating from small mistake to big mistake, did anyone notice? Anyway, review, review, review please!(:


	5. Scene 4

**Scene 4**

"Alright, class," the Geography teacher announced loudly. "I have marked your papers and I must say I am pretty disappointed by the class' results. Only three people had marks above 90, and the rest fell below 75 marks. And it's upon _100_ marks!"

Mrs Smith looked down at them through her thick, black-rimmed spectacles with a downturned mouth as she scanned the classroom. Odie felt a wave of excitement flood him. He was no doubt going to be the top of the class again. After all, he was a genius.

He looked around, feeling a little sympathetic for the worried-looking Jay, the fidgeting Archie and the frowning Herry who were in his class. Jay and Archie were pretty good in their studies, so they had a chance, but that meant poor Herry... He didn't want to think about it.

With a gleeful smirk pasted on his face, Odie sat still on his seat, anticipating the results and his name to be announced as the top three.

"Archie," the teacher started, walking over and handing the paper over to a wide-eyed, suprised Archie. "You got 96, congratulations. You're the highest in the class!"

Odie watched as Jay grinned, leaned over and nudged Archie in a way of congratulations, although Jay looked pretty worried about his own grades. Odie made a slightly dour face; after all, he'd expected himself to get top, but then again, no one was really unfallible.

"Jay, 95, not too far-off, good job." The teacher smiled briefly, then placed Jay's paper on his desk.

Jay sighed in relief; Archie, on the other hand, smirked at Jay, then turned around and gave Odie a raised-eyebrow look, making Odie slink down into his seat, wishing the ground would just swallow him up. He was starting to get a little desperate. He _had_ to be one of the top scorers, if not he would just totally lose his face.

"Herry, 91, big improvement," Mrs Smith said, beaming at Herry, who had almost fallen off his chair in shock. The whole class gasped in response as Mrs Smith returned Herry's paper, and then proceeded to give back all the papers.

Odie's jaw dropped to the floor when he saw his marks. "71," he breathed, almost in denial. "That can't be!"

Flipping his paper open to see his mistakes, he looked through them and smacked his head. "Oh great, I put the numbers instead of the full words! And I lost about 25 marks from those careless mistakes!"

_Maybe this was a lesson to be learnt: Never try attempting cockiness, especially Neil-style..._


	6. Scene 5

Alright, I'm updating again! Sorry for my long absence, I've been busy with schoolwork and the sort and I'm so dead tired. Hope you enjoy this one and please do review!

**Scene 5**

"1, 2, 3, 4 and 1, 2, 3, 4..." chanted Ms Gregory, sitting atop her desk and looking on with approval.

Archie glared at Atlanta, who was currently his partner. "Could you at least make your steps a little smaller?" he grumbled, annoyed, as he watched Jay and Theresa swirl around the dance floor with ease and grace. Not that he wanted to be stuck with Theresa, _no_, he wouldn't have _dreamt_ of it, but this was the third time he'd almost fell, and the fifteenth time Atlanta had stepped on his foot.

Atlanta glared daggers with him, and he smiled sheepishly and shut up, wincing as he felt his bare feet screech noisily on the polished wooden floor as he struggled to catch up with her huge steps.

_What just went wrong?_ Archie thought dazedly. The guy was supposed to lead the girl. This was _cha-cha_. In fact, the guy was supposed to lead the girl in dances all the time, if he wasn't mistaken. Stupid 8-point turn - he wasn't doing it all too well, seeing how Atlanta was seemingly taking over the role of the man.

"Atlanta!" he begged. "Take. Smaller. Steps!" For a warrior, he was surprisingly inept at dance. Something about having two left feet. And if someone thought doing the cha-cha with Atlanta was no biggie on energy, they should really reconsider their views.

Just then, Ms Gregory gracefully slid off the desk and started walking towards them with a frown on her face. Atlanta, however, was completely oblivious to that fact, and was still arguing with Archie over how her footing was absolutely alright.

"My goodness, Archie and Atlanta, look how the both of you are dancing!" Ms Gregory said in distaste, not noticing Archie's mortified look as all the other pairs stopped to gaze at the two. "Atlanta, take smaller steps, you're positively galloping, and that's not good! And Archie, you're supposed to be the man and take the lead! So why then is _Atlanta_ doing it all?"

"Uhm, M'am, I..." Archie stuttered, face reddening. He tried to ignore the class' peals of laughter, most namely coming from Jay and Theresa. He would have shot them a look if he hadn't had this evilness of a teacher staring at him and waiting for his explanation.

_So _not_ a good day._


	7. Scene 6

It's a sunny, bright Saturday morning, and I've just had my usual coffee and breakfast. So what's the natural thing for me to do next? Write, of course! So here I am, at the computer, thinking of an idea for this fic. And thankfully, I thought of something! And for my History project I'm so doing Ancient Greece, since it'll be my only time where I'll get to do something along that lines. I'm blissfully happy. Alright, okay, I'll stop babbling nonsense and let the fic begin!

**Scene 6**

Athena looked at Herry warily as the young man held her sword high in the air.

"Is this how you do it, Athena?" Herry questioned, looking a little nervously at what lay on the table in front of him.

Athena nodded seriously, helping him adjust the way he was holding her sword. "Yes, but only this last time shall I permit you wield my sword. The next time you want to do this, you have to use your own sword."

Herry blinked, then protested, "I don't have my own sword-"

"Then get one," Athena said impatiently. Perhaps Herry holding her sword made her feel unduly uncomfortable. "Now chop, _gently_ now."

Herry started chopping the meat with extreme carefulness, and was pleasantly surprised and happy that he was actually doing it correctly. That is, until he met a piece of stubborn meat that refused to be chopped under his extreme gentleness.

"Patience, Herry," Athena advised, but her words went on unheard as Herry wrestled with the meat.

"Stupid meat!" Herry grumbled. Giving up, he raised the sword menacingly, bringing it down on the table with his full force, forgetting that the strength he used was not advisable for cooking.

The chopping board immediately broke into half and the force of it all sent the halves flying and the pieces of chopped meat as well. Neil, who was just walking in, ducked and narrowly missed being hit by a piece of flying meat. Jay, who followed behind him, wasn't so lucky.

Athena growled in annoyance. This was the fourteenth time she had taught Herry to cook and the fourteenth time where this happened.

Herry put down Athena's sword, grinning sheepishly.

_Herry's strength + Athena's sword broken chopping board_

His arithmetic wasn't that good, but he knew what it meant.

_Broken chopping board Athena's wrath Run for your life!_


	8. Scene 7

**Little Miss Illusional,** you mentioned not having Theresa make a mistake in any of these scenes. Actually she made one in Scene 2 just like Jay did at that time. But yep, I never had her in the spotlight. So now, I bring to you yet another mistake!

**Scene 7**

Theresa sat, hunched over, as she shivered. Biting her lip in anxiety, she looked up wistfully at her dark, dingy quarters. Cronus had captured her, shoved her into this tiny, dirty dungeon; a little prison he could keep her in to use as future bait.

She recoiled in horror as she watched an ugly rat scamper past, holding the remains of her awful meal that the giant had served. She couldn't deny that she was used to the finer things in life, but this was just ridiculous. And through all this, she had been wondering what Jay and her friends - namely Jay - was doing to save her.

_Were they even trying?_

She grimaced, pushing an unruly lock of dirty hair back behind her ears. How she doubted them like that for even just a second escaped her. She smiled dryly, knowing that they would be coming for her one way or the other and she had to continue hoping.

Sighing, she had just leaned back when suddenly she heard a faint, scrapping noise at the door. Hopes rising, she stood up and walked over to the huge metal door.

"Theresa, are you there?" She heard a faint, muffled voice waver from behind the steely barrier.

Her heart soared. "Jay!"

"Hold on, Theresa, we'll get you out of there," Jay's disembodied voice floated over through the door, and she heard the twist of keys in the lock. Slowly, the door was heaved open.

The minute she could fit through the crack between the wall and the heavy door, she dashed through, relief and happiness washing over her. She fell into his arms, hugging him tightly and overcome with gladness that he had finally rescued her.

However, the voice that she had longed for for so many days was not the same as the one that started.

"Uhm, Theresa, would you let go please?"

Theresa looked up, eyes widening as she gazed into Archie's metallic grey eyes that depicted his awkwardness. Acute awareness stabbed her as she realised her arms were tightly wrapped around his waist and her head had just been, a few seconds ago, buried comfortably in his chest. Oh, and it didn't help that Jay stood beside Archie, eyes wide with shock as well, and a display of hurt as he crossed his arms and looked away, pained.

Blushing furiously, she granted Archie's request - she leapt from Atlanta's purple-haired dork as though he was the plague and mumbled an incoherent apology.

_Oh, joy._


	9. The Special Uncut Scene

Wahey, this is the last chapter of this fic, save for the epilogue of course, which is going to come right after this. Could I ask you all to tell me what you think about this chapter? Haha if you can and you have the time, please do(: Oh and this is a random scene. I'll put a footnote later to explain. And sorry for my long absence, I'm currently busy battling off the dreaded exams so I will not, I repeat, will not have much time to update _anything_. Sad, isn't it?

**The Special Uncut Scene**

_So you think you've seen enough mistakes, but you don't really believe something so unlucky can happen to someone._

_After all, you think they only happen to you, the jinx. Or the titans. But nah, not normal people._

_Wait till you see this special uncut scene..._

--

It was a deathly silence in the house, and the girl who was in the study room was alone and busy typing on the computer. Fingers were flying across the keyboard as she typed to get something done. Her parents were in the other room. That meant no one to disturb her, right?

Wrong.

As all mothers do, her mother came out to "disturb" her. Alright, so it wasn't really the mother's fault something like _this_ was about to happen later on, but still it contributed to the presence of distraction. So it was done with loving care, we all know. However, this brown-haired girl was chased to finish up and get off the computer to get her beauty sleep.

Finally, the girl quickly finished up the last bit of her fanfiction and, quickly clicking on a few links here and there, had the chapter posted when, suddenly...

"Oh **_SHOOT_**!"

Ferlinda's cry brought about the attention of her mother, who gave her a rather impatient look. After all, she had been asking her daughter _nicely_ for about half an hour now. A mother's patience is, unlike how we would like to believe, unfortunately not everlasting. And right now, this mother's patience was running dry.

The fact that the computer is widely known in the household for being a temperamental, annoying, lagging machine does not help matters in this one. Nor the fact that Ferlinda usually finds trouble with the computer as said piece of technology doesn't really like her.

"What is it this time?"

"I was writing a COTT fanfic, and then I posted an unfinished chapter of another story into this one! Oh no!"

Cheeks flaming, Ferlinda started her usual round of panicking.

"Oh no! The chapter I posted is not only unfinished, it's about _only_ Atlanta! And I left it without even finishing a word! Now what? How?! _HOW_?!" (A/N: Please note that this particular girl has a tendency to easily freak out.)

"Can't you change it?"

Brilliant light bulbs that should have gone off a long time ago finally went off in the mind.

"Oh right, yeah I can."

After a few adjustments, the girl finally breathed a sigh of relief. However, a glimpse at the Fanfiction page made her nearly break out into a scream.

"Fanfiction hasn't updated the change! Now the whole world can read it! I'm doomed, dead! Help!"

"Not everyone will be online. Come on, just go to sleep. There's nothing you can do about it anyway," said the ever-wise mother.

In the end, Ferlinda decided to go to sleep since she had no hand in controlling of the matter, but not before praying that absolutely no one was online.

And her message to all of you is...?

"_Oh_ _fooey_."

--

Moral of the story: Everyone makes mistakes. The seven teenagers also make mistakes. Even the author of this story, Mistakes, makes mistakes. So, no worries - you are normal, just like the rest of us.

--

Haha okay now that one is done. Somehow it feels a little unnatural to me, since the speech feels different from mine. Ah, never mind. Oh and yes that was a real experience, yes. Hope all of you did _not_ read the unfinished chapter thing! By the way, my mum is actually a really nice person, so yeah. Haha no misconceptions there about my parents, I hope. Oh and I hope that this chapter can be considered as a COTT fanfic. After all, it is somewhat about COTT.(:


	10. Epilogue

Epilogue time! I was originally going to end it just like I started the story, but then I decided to do something different. Right now, I'm still busy with exams but I'm getting a little breather after actually not messing up my Physics practical. Go me! Haha.

**Epilogue**

"I'm sorry."

"What did you say?"

"I said I'm _sorry_."

Archie grimaced inwardly, averting his eyes from Atlanta, whom he was sure was smirking at the moment. As much as he hated to dish out apologies, he was really wrong this time. Well, calling a woman pregnant was one thing, but telling her she got mistaken for being pregnant because she was plain fat was just really bad of him this time. Not that calling her pregnant wasn't bad enough.

To his utmost surprise, the woman's face lit up and she actually beamed at him. "Oh, and to think you were an unrepentant little boy. You're forgiven."

Archie stared at her in bewilderment. "Y-you mean you were just waiting for me to say sorry?" he stammered, squeezing his eyes shut.

"Why not?" The woman patted his head and Archie tried to hide his wince. "You're a good boy now, you are. Learning from your mistakes and all."

Before it could get any more horrific for Archie, the woman looked up. "Oh, this is the stop I get off." She flashed the mortified purple-haired teenager a bright and dazzling smile. "Toodles!"

_Talk about a 360-degree turn in mood_, Archie thought, managing a wry smile. "Uh... Bye!"

Who would have known forgiveness would come so easy? If he had known how his apology would be treated, he would have done this a long time ago to save his face from utter embarrassment. Plus, it was in front a busload of people. And _Atlanta_.

Anyway, all he had to do now was to avoid Atlanta's gaze. Easy peasy.

_Yeah... Right._

--

_It was too late to take back his words..._

But he would try anyway.

Jay advanced slowly into the forest. The rain poured down mercilessly on the both of them, yet neither cared.

He heard her pained sobs, her broken heart, as though he had actually hurt it crack. He knew he had caused the pain, and he wished and he longed to make things right again.

Swallowing nervously, he walked up to her and gently placed a hand on her shoulder. "Theresa..."

The beautiful, orange-haired girl merely shook his hand off her shoulder and stalked off quietly deeper into the forest.

"Theresa! Wait! Please! I'm - I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I didn't mean it. I didn't mean anything I said." Jay rushed after her, pausing when she suddenly stopped in her tracks.

Theresa's head was bowed low. He could see the tears dripping silently to the grassy ground, and he was sure it wasn't the rain.

"Jay. You meant everything you said."

Her words were like a break in the stillness. The hurt was overwhelming and evident from her shaky voice. She lifted those innocent-looking emerald orbs to face him, and he found himself swimming in a sea of green and hurt.

"No. No I didn't! I wasn't thinking."

"Yeah, you weren't." The tone of her voice was nothing but light-hearted. Dark words laced with heavy sarcasm, she turned those brilliant eyes of hers away from him.

"And I'm sorry. Look, it doesn't matter whether you forgive me or not. All I know is that you're hurt and I'm worried. Theresa, I... I... I love you."

Jay blinked at what he just said. A blush would have slowly crept onto his face had he not been in such a situation.

Theresa's eyes took on a slight shimmer of hope. "R-really?"

Jay gave her an apologetic smile. "Really. I don't know why I said those horrible things, but I was wrong. Forgive me?"

She wordlessly slipped her hand into his, and suddenly he knew they were going to be okay - more than okay, actually.

--

A sharp scream emnated from the upper floor, drawing surprised looks from everyone except Neil.

"Now what's wrong with Neil again?" Archie grumbled irrately, glaring up at the ceiling.

"Maybe another fashion disaster?" Theresa joked through a mouthful of cereal.

Just then, there was a clatter of feet as the blonde rushed down the stairs, two at a time. A wide grin stretched on his face, he looked exuberant.

"My face! The rashes are all gone!" he sang happily, skipping down the stairs.

Everyone else rolled their eyes.

When Neil reached the bottom of the stairs, Jay got up and grabbed a box on the table. Neil raised an eyebrow as he approached.

"What's that?"

"That's for you." Jay handed over the present.

"Uh... Guys, my birthday is long over?" Neil asked. Then he grinned and shrugged. "Of course, I know you guys love me all, so you kindly gave me another present..."

"Neil, just open it," Atlanta ordered, glaring daggers at Neil.

Neil gave a girlish shriek of delight when he finished unwrapping it. "It's the same shampoo, only it's the rose one!"

Odie nodded seriously. "You better check again later, though," he warned. "We've already exhausted our savings in buying you another one, since you already touched the other one."

"Oh yeah baby!" Neil quickly made his way upstairs.

Thankfully, to him, his world was straightened again. No more problem skin and even a new shampoo. Problem solved.

--

"Odie, I would like to see you," said Mrs Smith as the rest of the class streamed out of the classroom doors.

Odie gulped and walked over to his Geography teacher with bated breath. Had he messed up his essay as well? His heart sank. If he flopped this one too, he would be left with a horrible overall mark for his Geography!

"Odie, about your essay..."

"...Y-yes, Mrs Smith?"

"I find it wonderful! Spectacular! Brilliant! You linked all geographical factors well and you provided great insight! Tomorrow I am going to present it to the class." Mrs Smith gave him a warm smile. "In fact, your grade for this paper is extremely high so much so that you've pulled up your overall mark!"

"Oh wow! Serious?" Odie punched his fist in the air in relief and happiness.

"Yes." The Geography teacher nodded.

_So maybe getting a bad grade isn't the end of the world after all?_

--

"We are going to assess you and grade you according to your skill, grace and movement." The male dance teacher peered at them through his low spectacles. Beside him was Archie and Atlanta's normal dance teacher, and she, too, held a clipboard as she gave them a look of worry.

"Come on, we can do this," Archie whispered to Atlanta confidently.

Atlanta nodded in response, her face serious, as they took to the dance floor.

Awkwardly, they held hands and got ready. Praying they wouldn't stumble, they set off as the music started.

"1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4," Archie muttered under his breath to keep count for the both of them as he skillfully manuevered them in the correct direction at each stage.

Surprisingly, Atlanta wasn't galloping anymore, either.

"Last one," the fiery-haired student murmured in a low tone as they swirled around the dance floor. _Wow, practice really makes perfect._

The song ended and they ended at the precise moment as well. Both teachers stared in astonishment at their supposedly worst students and they even clapped.

Atlanta and Archie glanced at each other, grinning as they high-fived.

"You're not such a bad partner after all," Atlanta teased, poking him the ribs as they exited, beaming with pleasure and pride.

"And you're not such a bad person to hold hands with," Archie remarked accidentally, then he quickly corrected himself. "Uhh... I mean, at least your hands were pouring out sweat like some people do."

Atlanta glared at him as they both walked off to their next class.

_Oh well, one can't win all the battles._

--

Jay hovered nearby a little nervously as he watched Herry handle his xiphos on the meat.

"Careful now, Herry," he advised cautiously, thanking his lucky stars that he hadn't had a piece of broken chopping board in his eyes. It seemed he was always teaching his teammates how to cook, and usually it ended off quite disastrous. (A/N: See Confession.)

Herry nodded in utter concentration, brows furrowed as he applied gentle pressure on the meat. Finally, the meat gave and it came out in neat little pieces.

Jay sighed in relief and grinned. Patting Herry on the back, he swiftly retrieved his sword, washed it and kept it away. "Great job, Herry!"

Just then, Athena walked in and she gasped. "Herry, did you do that? Or was it you, Jay?"

Jay shrugged. "Nope, it's all Herry's work."

"Herry, you've finally got it!" Athena applauded lightly. "Which knife did you use? The meat knife?"

"He used my sword." Jay tried to hide his grimace at how his sword was still probably sticky with raw meat.

"Oh." Athena nodded approvingly at the little piles of meat. "As a reward, Herry, I'll prepare a special feast tonight." She beamed hugely, a little uncharacteristic for a graceful goddess.

Jay could almost feel the bloatedness he was going to feel later attack him like a wave of nausea, but he pushed it aside.

_Potential flying meat not a threat anymore. What a relief_.

--

"Jay?"

She saw him escaping down through the narrow flights of stairs and she was sure she knew why. He was hurt.

After all, the boyfriend came to his beloved's rescue only to have one of his best friends hugged by his loved one instead? But the thing he didn't know was that it was just a mistake. A terrible accident.

Theresa rushed down after him, so intent in catching him that she tripped over a stone lodged in some part of a stair. Screaming, her arms flailed wildly as she struggled to balance. In the end, gravity won and she found himself plunging down the stairs.

Just then, she found Jay's arms catching her almost perfectly and she clutched him in fear, her narrow escape from injury and possibly death flashing before her eyes.

"Thanks," she told him gratefully.

He only nodded silently in response, his brown eyes dark with hurt.

"Jay, it wasn't that I wanted to hug Archie just now. I hugged the wrong person." Her face burned with shame as she told him the truth.

Jay looked a little disbelieving. "Yeah right. That hug seemed a little too tight for a friend."

"I said I hugged the _wrong_ _person_. I was hoping to find my grimy self in your arms... Not his. I'm sorry, Jay."

Her contrite and sincere smile made his heart skip a beat. Somehow, she always managed to do it, whether rain or shine. He had to wonder how she did it.

Jay sighed and scratched his head. "Alright, never mind, forget it."

And Theresa gave him a full-fledged smile and hugged _him_ this time.

--

_Mistakes may be inevitable and painful when they happen._

_But as long as you try, there's always hope for a cure, a solution of sorts._

_After all, no one can go back and change a bad beginning..._

_...But anyone can start now and create a successful ending._

THE END.

--

Alright, done. How was it? Review please! Oh and all those seven scenes up there are actually from the seven mistakes the team portrayed in the fic. Hope you could get the connection, if you don't, I'm always just a PM away!


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